Run-proof or run-resistant flat-knit hosiery



Aug. 4, 1936. E. E; CARLSON 2,049,994

RUN-PROOF on RUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY Fi-led Dec. 10, 1934 5 Sheets-Sheet l Invenlor: EZZsw0r3F1/E Oar/7'38 0 n. QyZ Z y .QKW

Aug. 4, 1936. E. E. CARLSON RUN-PROOF on RUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec.

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Aug 4, 1936. E. E. CARLSON 2,049,994

RUN-PROOF ORyRUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY Filed Dec. 10, 1934 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 I Inveniow: .EZZs woWZ%E LarZs bn, QMQ y (3w Aug. 4, 1936. E. CARLSON 2,049,994

RUN-PROOF OR RUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY Filed Dec. 10, 19:54 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Aug. 4, 1936. E. E. CARLS ON 2,049,994

RUN-PROOF OR RUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY Filed Dec. 10, 1934 5 Shets-Sheet 5 InveW/Zor: Ezlswor iii/E (227 26 0?:

Patented Aug, 4, 1936 RUN-PROOF R RUN-RESISTANT FLAT-KNIT HOSIERY Ellsworth E. Carlson, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., assignor to Van Raalte Company, New York, p *N. Y., a corporation of New York Application December 10, 1934, Serial No. 759,742

3 Claims.

This application is a continuation as to generic common subject-matter of my co-pending applications, Ser. No. 541,245, filed June .1, 1931, now Pat. No. 1,989,913, Feb. 5, 1935, and Ser. No.

- 613,244, filed May 24, 1932, and Ser. No. 645,919, filed December 6, 1932, now Pat. No. 2,011,267, Aug. 13, 1935, and is in part for subject-matter divided out of my said application Ser. No. 541,245, now Pat. No. 1,989,913. The subject l0 matter herein disclosed and claimed is generic in scope to the matter claimed in my said copending application Ser. No. 541,245, now Pat. No. 1,989,913, is also generic in scope to the matter claimed in my co-pending application Ser.

No. 743,531, filed September 11, 1934, now Pat- No. 2,037,000, April 14, 1936, and is also generic in scope to the matter claimed in my co-pending application Ser. No. 709,302, filed February 1, 1934, now Pat. No. 2,014,126, Sept. 10, 1935, inasmuch as herein no claim is made to any particular manner of fashioning or shaping the flat-knit l fabric, since any of the methods of fashioning disclosed in said co-pending applications may be employed.

In order that the principle of the invention may be readily understood, I have disclosed certain embodiments of the fabric of my invention and have illustrated, upon an enlarged scale, the

stitches formed of the main or weft thread and of the warp threads of which the fabric is composed from edge to edge thereof, and have also indicated suflicient mechanism to make it clear how the fabric of my invention is made and how the method of my invention is carried out.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of part of a full-fashioned or flat-knit stocking blank made in accordance withmy invention, the foot part of the stocking not being shown;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the completed stocking, the upper part thereof being partly broken away;

Fig. "3 is a plan view of a blank of an English type of full-fashioned stocking having my invention applied thereto, or incorporated therein,

parts being broken away;

Fig. 4 is a' detail, upon a very greatly enlarged scale, of the outer or front face of the fabric to show the main or weft yarn or thread and the additional or warp yarns or threads which are introduced into all the needle wales in order to make the fabric run-proof or run-resistant;

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the back or inner face a of the said fabric; 5 Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but upon an even more greatly enlarged scale, to indicate certain characteristics inherent in the fabric of my invention;

Fig. 7 is a detail of matter not herein claimed but which is illustrative merely of one type of 5 fashioning which may be employed in a fabric herein generically claimed, other manners of fashioning or shaping the fabric being shown in 3. Figs. 1 and 3, but which manners of fashionings are not herein claimed; 10

Fig. 8 is'a detail in front elevation showing certain of. the knitting needles and the warp thread fingers for supplying warp threads thereto, the supporting bar for the warp thread fingers being made in a series of sections or blocks, cerl5 tain of which may be moved into inactive position during the knitting operation;

Fig. 9 is a vertical sectional view to show the relation of a needle, a warp thread finger, a

sinker and the weft thread carrier at the stage 20 of the operation when the warp thread is being wrapped about its needle and a stitch of the weft thread is being measured by the sinker adjacent said needle, the fabric being above the knocking over bit; 25

Fig. 10 is a similar sectional detail but omitting the warp thread finger and the weft thread carrier and representing the fabric as below the knocking over bit, the stitch having been cast off the needle; 30

Fig. 11 is a view similar to Fig. 10 but representing a new stitch being measured by the sinker, the fabric being above the knocking over bit;

Fig. 12 is a detail in front elevation with parts 35 broken away, of certain of the warp thread guides and needles, the bar for the warp thread guides being of one piece instead of being composed of a series of sections or blocks;

Fig. 13 is a vertical sectional view showing that 40 type of warp thread finger supporting bar illustrated in my said co-pending application Ser. No. 541,245, now Patent No. 1,989,913, and indicatingthe relation of a. warp thread finger to its needle at one stage of the operation; 45

Fig. 14 is a perspective view to show the simultaneous drawing down of stitches composed of the weft thread and warp threads to make non-robbed equal-length stitches throughout the width of the fabric, which stitches are each com- 50 posed of a weft thread constituent and a warp thread constituent, the last-illustrated course of stitches having just been knocked off but not yet fully drawn down; and

of movement of the stitch forming elements from the time the old stitch is knocked off until the new stitch is pressed.

The fabric of my invention is a plain fabric made upon a flat-knit machine or a machine of a full-fashioned type to the extent that the needles are spring beard needles which are all drawn down or moved together, the main or weft thread being laid course after course and measured by the sinkers and dividers as in a full-fashioned type of machine, so that in every course from' edge to edge of the fabric all the stitches are of equal length, being non-robbed because of the simultaneous movement of the needles, the weft thread constituent of each stitch being accurately measured by the sinker or divider pertaining thereto and the weft thread and warp thread constituent of each stitch in each course being equally drawn down by the needles so that equal length stitches each composed of a weft thread constituent and a warp thread constituent are formed from edge to edge of the fabric in each course thereof.

I have chosen to illustrate my invention as a full-fashioned or fiat-knit stocking.

The knitted fabric may be and preferably is a plain fabric such as made upon a full-fashioned hosiery machine having a large number of sections upon each of which a stocking leg, or, if desired, a stocking leg and foot, is knitted. Any

' suitable hosiery yarn or thread may be employed stocking at 2, it preferably having a welt at the upper end. The weft yarn or thread may be changed from time to time in knitting the stocking as may be necessary, for example, at the end of the welt. Also, reinforcing weft yarns or threads may be introduced at the desired points, as, for example, in the heel and in the sole and at the toe. Y

In Figs. 4, and 6, wherein is shown upon an enlarged scale the stitches of the fabric (Figs. 4 and 6 showing the frontthereof and Fig. 5 the back thereof), I have at 3 indicated the stitches or loops made by the'main or weft knitting yarn or thread. A fabric made only of the yarn or thread 3 is not run-proof or run-resistant. It is the purpose of my invention to make a fabric which is run-proof in both directions or run-resistant throughout the entire extent there- This I accomplish, in accordance with the disclosed embodiment of the invention, by introducing into each needle wale a separate or warp yarn or thread, five of which are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 at 4; and three of which are shown in Fig. 6 at 4. Each of the warp threads or yarns 4, which are introduced to render the fabric non-run or strongly run-resistant, may be of any 'vious loop andthe yarn or thread 4 therein and then passes in front of the same down through warp thread guides and needles are shown merely diagrammatically and in other figures the actual relation of the parts at different stages of the operation is shown. It will be understood that the number of the needles and the number of the 5 warp thread guides are sufficient for the' purpose of knitting the stocking or stocking blank and that as many heads or units will be'provided in the machine as may be necessary or desirable. The main or weft yarn or thread 3 is introduced in the manner usual in full fashioned machines, namely, by a carrier indicated at 9 in Figs. 9 and 13, said carrier being traversed from edgeto edge of each section of the fabric, and the loops or stitches of the main yarn are formed in the usual manner characteristic of a full-fashioned type of machine, but which never, prior to'my invention, has been equipped with a warp thread finger for each or substantially each needle from edge to edge of the fabric.

- As shown most clearly in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, in this embodiment of the invention, each warp thread or yarn 4 is introduced into 'all the loops of its own needle wale only. The main or weft knitting yarn or thread, as stated, is introduced in the usual manner by a yarn guide or weft carrier such as indicated at 9, said carrier being traversed back and forth the entire width of the fabric, but the fabric and the method of my invention are generic to or are not dependent upon any particular manner of fashioning or shaping the fabric, and such references as are hereinafter made to different ways of fashioning or shaping the fabric are intendecLto be illustrative merely of several ways in which a fabric made in accordance with my invention, may if desired be fashioned or shaped. For. example, and for purposes of illustration of one way by which a I fabric constructed in accordance with my invention may, if desired, be fashioned during the knitting thereof, I make reference to Figs. 1 and 2, wherein the fashioning of the fabric is preferably not effected by transferring the loops but by successively shortening periodically the traverses of the yarn guide or carrier for the main knitting yarn or thread 3, the unknitted ends or portions of the discontinued needle wales where the traverse of the said yarn guides or-carriers is shortened, being indicated at 4a in Fig. 1.

As shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, each warp thread or yarn 4 lies in parallelism with the loop of the main or weft knitting yarn or thread 3 iinside the same, and at the top of the loop the warp yarn or thread 4 passes to the back of the prethe next loop when the same has been completed, passing to the back of such loop and then participating in the formation of the next loop in the next course, and the described operation is continued from course to course. The said warp -yarns or threads 4 do not enter into or become incorporated in the sinker wales in the disclosed embodiment of the invention.

.enter into each needle loop, and (after the warp threads are wrapped about the respective needles as herein explained) the spring beard needlesare all drawn down together. This avoids the inevitable slight robbing incident to the production of circular knit fabric made by independently operated needles, inasmuch as each and every needle stitch or loop is, as to the weft thread element thereof, accurately measured, and inas much as in each and every needle stitch or loop the size of the stitches is the same, because the needles are all drawn down together, I am enabled, in the practice of my invention, to apportion coordinatingly each needle loop or stitch of each warp thread 4, as to the length of thread constituting the same, to the accurately-measured corresponding needle loop or stitch of the main or weft thread 3. One result is that the normal lateral'expansibility of the entire stocking or stocking blank incident to the drawing of the sinker loops upon the cooperating needle loops, in the use of the stocking, is fully preserved, notwithstanding the non-run character of the stocking, by reason of the said apportionment of the proper amount of warp thread to each measured, corresponding needle loop or stitch of the main body or weft thread.

, threads or yarns 4 is the same as the number The warp threads 4 for each section of the machine are or may be mounted upon a single short beam, so that all the threads forthat section are controlled from the same point. Preferably I provide suitable tensioning means for each such beam, which may be of a positive letoff character, instead of a spring tension ordinarily used upon a tricot machine. This facilitates the apportionment of exactly the right length or amount of warp for each needle stitch or loop of each warp thread. Thus each warp constituent of each needle stitch lies in accurate position in essential parallelism throughout with the corresponding stitch of the main or weft knitting thread 3. Thus, not only is each loop or stitch of the main knitting thread 3 accurately measured, but each needle loop or stitch of each warp thread 4 is at the same time coordinately apportioned, although not laid by the sinkers and dividers. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the warp threads are simultaneously-accurately apportioned for each stitch by reason of the fact that in the operation of a full-fashioned knitting machine or a machine of the general type herein disclosed, all the warp stitches are drawn down simultaneously to the same depth into the knocking over bits of the machine. By causing each warp thread to pass entirely around a needle in the formation of. the warp thread stitch, I further guard against any deformation to either the needle stitches or the adjacent sinker stitches.

In order to incorporate the said warp yarns or threads 4 with the main or weft knitting yarn or thread 3, I impart to the support for the warp guide bar 5 a longitudinal movement (that is, one lengthwise of the machine) and also a rocking movement (that is, one transverse to the needles). The construction is preferably such that each warp yarn or thread guide 6 enters between two next adjacent needles from front to rear, is then moved lengthwise of the machine a distance of one needle, is then swung rearwardly so that each yarn guide 6 passes between the next two needles, and then is moved longitudinally in the opposite direction, thereby completing a square or rectangle.

I have not illustrated the support for the warp threads or yarns 4, but it is to be understood that they are preferably wound upon a small warp beam and that the number of the said of active needles (that is, the same as the greatest number of needles active at any time in the production of the hosiery fabric). The number of warp thread guides 6, of course, is the same as the total number of warp threads or yarns 4.

I have stated that the fabric of my invention is generic to or not dependent upon any particular way or type of fashioning or shaping the fabric, and such reference to different ways of shaping or fashioning the fabric as. is herein made is merely by way of example to indicate the generic nature of this invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, in making the blank shown in Fig. 1, instead of narrowing by transferring stitches, as is done at present with the weft thread only upon full-fashioned machines (because of the introduction of the warp threads 4 throughout the fabric from edge to edge thereof), I may and preferably do fashion without transferring stitches, and merely by shortening,

where it is desired to fashion the fabric, as, for example, in the knitting of the calf portion and ankle of the stocking. My invention is, however, not limitedto such procedure. It is, as above stated, generic to all types of fashioning and is not dependent upon any of them.

In Fig. 1, as hereinbefore stated, I have represented at 4a the free or depending ends of the warp threads or yarns 4 which exist at those portions of the fabric at the edges thereof where the traverse of the main or weft yarn carrier is made successively shorter, as already described. The said free ends 4a are to be trimmed off after the narrowing is effected.

The foot of the stocking may be made in any suitable manner and may be made directly upon the machine herein in part disclosed, or the leg blanks may be transferred to a footer. Preferably but not necessarily the foot is of the English full-fashionedtype with seams at the sides of the foot. For making the-foot, I may provide a footer made up of a great number of sections or may provide a unit foot machine.

I have pointed out that in the preferred type of stocking of -my invention, each warp thread is confined throughout to its own needle wale, there 7 being a warp thread for each needle wale and the sinker loops being devoid of warp threads. Inasmuch as it is very difficult to maintain during knitting precisely the same minutia of tension on each warp thread as on the body or weft thread, and as this can at best only be closely approximated, there is in the illustrated type of my stocking great lateral play or relative yielding between (that is, with respect to) adjacent needle wales with consequent greater lateral expansibility than if the warp threads bound together adjacent needle wales by being incorporated in a knitting relation into the intervening sinker wales. While in an ordinary tricot fabric there is great lateral expansibility, the tricot type of stitch in such tricot fabric does not after lateral expansion comeback to the original position or condition. In other words, when drawn upon laterally the loops or stitches of the tricot fabric are themselves drawn tight or decreased in size, and they do not readily resume their former outline. In the case of the fabric of my invention, while the loops readily yield laterally under lateral strain,'they do not inso doing tend to decrease in size but merely to flatten out and hence they readily resume their original shape because of the natural pulling back force of the weft stitch element of the loops of the'fabric.

Furthermore, the lateral expansibility of the stocking of my invention is essentially uniform throughout; that is, it is not greater at some points than at others.

Contrasting the stocking of my invention with a circular knit stocking wherein the sizes of the stitches vary, because of inevitable stitch robbing, it is apparent that there would have to be a corresponding varying in the size of the warp thread portion or element of the stitches, inasmuch as the weft threadelement of those stitches varies in the individual stitches. In other words, there would have to be a varying or different total length or amount of warp thread in different needle wales, which would give a non-uniform appearance and non-uniform openness orcloseness of structure of loops in the different needle wales. This would be a very faulty construction. Moreover, in a seamless hose, due to the fact that the same is shaped or fashioned by shortening the length of the loops in the ankle portion, the

density of the fabric is changed in the ankle portion of the stocking, as well as the expansibility in the same portion. In the stocking of my invention, both expansibility and density are uniform throughout the entire stocking blank aside from the reinforcing hereinbefore referred to.

While I have stated that in Figs. 4, 5 and 6,

I side of the loop and in such case it increases the sheerness of the finished article.

Furthermore, in a circular knit fabric, the

shaping thereof is accomplished by varying the stitch length from time to time or changing the tension of the main knitting thread from time to time, or both. Neither of these procedures would properly cooperate with warp threads in the respective needle wales. When 'the stitch length is lessened, the warp in each stitch would have to be lessened, and this would accentuate more than .before the difference in appearance at the different areas where the stitch length has been changed. If the tension on the warps were changed in a circular knit fabric during the knitting to correspond to changes in the tension of the body or weft thread, then the lateral expansibility would be different at the different zones or parts of said circular knit stocking.

It will be observed, therefore, that in the fullfashioned stocking of my invention, the provision of. warp threads in the respectiveneedle wales cooperates with the measured stitches of the weft thread, with the result that all the weft thread portions of the stitches areof the same size in each wale, and accordingly there is the same apportionment of warp threads to each of said equal size stitches, with the consequence that the stocking is of uniform appearance and structure throughout. I

By accuratelymeasuring the stitches of the main or weft thread, I am enabled to and do form with each such measured needle loop of the main or weft body thread 3, a loop of one of the warp threads 4, with suflicient length of extent the lateral expansibility of the said flat warp apportioned thereto so that not only are the composite loops of warp and weft thread equal in length throughout the fabric from edge to edge of each course, but the said warp threads 4 do not interfere with nor detract from the 5 full lateral expansibility of the full-fashioned or fiat-knit fabric blank. Bymeasuring the stitches of the main or weft knitting thread 3 through the action of the sinkers and dividers (thus securing absolute equality in the size of the needle loops in the main knitting thread 3), I provide, as 'it were, a foundation that receives or has incorporated therein in the knitting process the loops of each warp thread in just sufficient length so that no warp thread will (at the point where it crosses in a lengthwise direction the bight portions of the main knitting thread, as illustrated on a large scale in Fig. 6 and is also inherent in the fabric as illustrated in Figs. 4 and '5), prevent said main or weft 2o knitting thread 3 from responding to the pull upon the sinker wales when laterally expanding the stocking in use. This result is contributed to also by the fact that the needles are all moved downward at the same time instead of independently, as in an independent needle machine, and also by reason of the fact that spring beard needles are employed instead of latch needles.

I am, of course, aware that it has long been well known that a full-fashioned machine operates by measuring accurately its stitches of weft thread, that the needles are pulled down simultaneously, and that the needles are spring beard needles, but no one in the art prior to my invention, so far as I am aware, ever discovered that a non-run flat fabric could be made by the introduction of warp threads each into its own needle wale, without impairing to any fabric, by seizing upon the fact that the needle stitches made by a full-fashioned machine are accuratelymeasured and are all of equal length in the making of a fabric composed of or knitted from a weft thread only.

In order that the action upon the stitches in laterally stretching the fabric may be entirely clear, I have in Fig. 6 (the fabric structure it is only through the fact that the stocking is made with measured stitches that the lateral eicpansibllity thereof has been preserved. The stocking of my invention is not only of substantially full lateral expansibility as compared with a full-fashioned stocking made of the same weft thread or threads, but without the warp threads, but said stocking of my invention is also .of essentially uniform expansibility at all points.

Both these results are due in part to the fact that each warp thread is confined to its own needle wale, and to the fact that the sinker wales are devoid of warp threads. .There is, therefore, more lateral playor relative yielding between (that is, with respect to) adjacent needle wales with consequent greater lateral expansibility than ifthey were bound together by warp l threads each in two or three-or other plurality of needle wales. Also the lateral expansibility is rendered essentially uniform throughout the stocking; thatis, the stocking is not of more lateral expansibility at some points than at'others, which would be the case if the inevitable slight var'yings in tension of the hundreds of warp threads with respect to the weft threads were not counteracted by keeping the warp threads out of the sinker wales, and therefore not permitting relative yielding.

The fabric herein claimed and the process of making the same are clearly distinguished from what may be termed a hypothetical piece of fabric cut from a tube knitted on a circular or so-called seamless machine, but having a warp thread in each needle wale, inasmuch as in such a fabric (if the same had ever heretofore been produced) the stitches thereof would not be of a non-robbed, equal length character, nor would it contain measured stitches and the warp and weft thread constituents of such a fabric (if ever heretofore produced) would not be stitches that throughout each course were all drawn down simultaneously by the needles so as to be of exactly equal length throughout that course and therefore in every course.

In Fig. 3, I have represented a plan view of a small portion of a blank of an English type of full-fashioned or fiat-knit stocking, the fabric whereof is knitted in accordance with my invention. The top welt of the stocking is indicated at It), and it will be understood that the additional or warp threads 4 may be and preferably are introduced into the fabric (each in its own needle wale from edge to edge of said fabric) from the very commencement thereof (that is, at the very commencementof the welt), or the welt may be made in the usual manner and turned or closed, and thereupon a lighter knitting or weft thread may be substituted for the heavier weft thread of the welt. The additional or warp threads 4 are continued throughout the fabric as hereinbefore stated in connection with other views of the drawings. The

greater part of the leg portion of the stocking would be the section or block 'A at the other end of the warp thread guide bar. At the same time the traverse of the main or weft thread carrier is or may be automatically shortened so that it extends only the length of the line 13 of Fig. 3.

The foregoing is stated merely as indicative of the fact that my broad invention herein claimed may be embodied in a flat-knit fabric, the shaping of which is or may be effected in any one of a number of different ways. I

It will be understood that in completing a blank such as indicated in Fig. 3, the triangular pieces at opposite edges comprehended within the points ll, l5, l8, at each side of such fabric would be trimmed away, that is, along the dotted lines I5,

I 6. It will also be understood that the stocking blank will be seamed along the selvage edges and along the trimmed lines i5, l6 down to the usual point for an English type of foot.

I have not herein shown the remainder of th blank including the foot portion, but it will be understood that the same may be of the charac- 5 ter shown in my said co-pending application Ser.

' No. 613,244; that is to say, the warp threads conlimited to knitting the foot in such manner. In the knitting of the leg and instep blank, I would in this embodiment of the invention throw out of action two additional warp thread guide blocks or sections when the heel tabs are completed, namely, the block or section F of Fig. 8 and the section B (not shown) at the left. The said sections would each be moved out of action automatically at the proper time as by means of levers indicated at IT in Figs. 8 and 9.

It will, of course, be understood that I have not in Fig. 8 attempted to show the exact number of 25 warp thread fingers carried by each section or block of the warp thread guide bar. In Fig. 12, the warp thread guide bar is shown as .a single unitary structure, since in the use of such a guide bar in making the fabric of my invention, none of 3 the warp thread guides is moved out of action during the knitting operation.

In Fig. '7, I have indicated a small portion of v a fabric constructed in accordance with the gencontains laterally transferred stitches l8, 18, the

said stitches being laterally transferred by means such as disclosed in my Patent No. 1,987,409, October 30, 1934 and in my Patent No. 2,037,000, April 14, 1936. No claim is herein made tosuch lateral transfer of stitches and the same is iilustrated as indicating one of the several ways in which a fabric constructed in accordance with my generic invention may be shaped or fashioned.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 9, 10, 11 and 13 to 21, the sinkers are indicated at 18 and the knocking over bits at l9, and it will be understood that the dividers are provided at the customary points of a full-fashioned knitting machine between the sinkers. In Fig. 14, I have shown in perspective the simultaneous drawing down of stitches, each composed of a weft thread constituent and a warp thread constituent, so as to make non-robbed equal-length stitches throughout the width of the fabric in each course from selvage to selvage. The last illustrated course of stitches represented as formed in said Fig. 14 is shown as having just been knocked off but not yet fully drawn down.

In Figs. 15 to 21, I have indicated one cycle of 0 movement of the stitch forming elements from the time the old stitch is knocked oif until the new stitch is pressed. As therein indicated, the warp threads themselves are not measured by the sinkers, but nevertheless all stitches of each 5' ever cut, owing to the non-run character of the fabric throughout.

The stocking of my invention herein disclosed has a uniformity of appearance throughout when being worn or when placed on a form, the color of which contrasts with the color of the stocking, as, for example, a dark colored stocking worn on the leg or placed on a white or flesh colored form. When a stocking is being worn or is on such a form, the light is reflected partly from the thread of each loop (warp and weft constituents thereof) and also partly from the skin or the surface of the form exposed through each loop opening or interstice. The percentage of reflection ,from these two surfaces diners markedly one from the other,- as there is much less reflection from a dark object (the thread structure of the loops) than from the skin or from the surface of the form. By having all the loops of equal size, I get the same (Joint or resultant) reflection at all parts of the stocking, and so the stocking will have the same appearance at all parts thereof aside from the matter of inevitableinequalityin different parts of the weft thread if of natural silk. As to that, it is observed that because I use about 400 different warp threads in a single stocking blank, which may be and desirably are natural silk, there is obtained a diffusion of the inevitable irregularities of all the warp threads. This enhances the sameness of appearance of the whole fabric. Especially where the fabric is knitted of natural silk, I obtain a diffusion of the inevitable irregularities in the diameter of the silk thread.

,Having thus described the generic features of the fabric of my invention and indicated how such a fabric is formed, I desire it to be understood that although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A fashioned, plain, flat knit, non-run stocking or selvaged leg and instep blank therefor, substantially all the stitches of which throughout substantially all the courses thereof consist each only of a weft loop and 'a substantially symmetrically positioned warp loop, said weft loops all being those of a weft thread knitted course after course from selvage to selvage throughout the said fabric blank and said warp loops being collectivelythose of a separate warp thread for substantially each needle wale throughout the extent thereof, all said weft loops being accurately measured and therefore of accurately uniform'size and lengththroughout, and all of said warp loops being each accurately apportioned the said stocking or said leg and instep blank being also of the same density or size of loops throughout and devoid of change of shape of loop structure in producing the non-run characteristic.

2. A fashioned, plain, flat knit, non-run stocking or selvaged leg and instep blank therefor, substantially all the stitches of which throughout substantially all the courses thereof consist each only of a weft loop anda substantially symmetrically positioned warp loop, said weft loops all being those of a weft thread knitted course after course from selvage to selvage throughout the said fabric blank and said warp loops being collectively those of a separate warp thread for substantially each needle wale throughout the extent thereof, all said weft loops being accurately measured and therefore of accurately uniform size and length throughout, and all of said warp loops being each accurately apportioned to the corresponding weft loop in the knitting of the said stocking blank, thereby presenting, 20

or interstices of the stitches of the fabric, when 25 worn or on a form, the said stocking or said leg and instep blank havingthe same loop structure appearance as a full-fashioned stocking of standard manufacture, the said stocking or said leg and instep blank having fashioning wales, 30

substantially each fashioning wale having said warp thread loops therein throughout the existence of each said wale as a separate wale, the said stocking or said leg and instep blank being also of the same density or size of loops through out and devoid of change of shape of loop structure in producing the non-run characteristic.

3. A fashioned, plain, flat knit, non-run stocking or selvaged silk leg and instep blank therefor, substantially all the stitches of which throughout substantially all the courses thereof consist each only of a weft loop and a substantially symmetrically positioned warp loop, said weft loops all being those of a silk weft thread knitted course after course from selvage to selvage throughout the said fabric blank and said warp loops being collectively those of a separate silk warp thread for substantially each needle wale throughout the extent thereof, all said weft loops being accurately measured and therefore of accurately uniform size and length throughout, and all of said warp loops being each accurately apportioned to the corresponding weft loop in the knitting of the said stocking blank, thereby presenting, when being worn or on a form, a uniformity of appearance throughout and providing a uniform light reflecting surface and also providing for equality of reflection of light at all the openings or interstices of the stitches of the fabric, when worn or on a form, the said stocking -or said leg and instep blank having the same loop structure appear,

ance as'a full-fashioned stocking of standard manufacture, the said stocking or said leg or instep blank having fashioning wales, substantially each fashioning wale having said warp thread loops'therein throughout the existence of eachsaid wale as a separate wale, the said stocking or said leg and instep blank being also of the same density or size of loops throughout and devoid of change of shape of loop structure in producing the non-run characteristic.

ELLSWORTH E. CARLSON. 

